AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT FOR THE LANGUAGE

CLASSROOM

Maria Dantas-Whitney, Ph.D. Western Oregon University

Fulbright Scholar 2016-17 (Universidad Latina/Panama Bilingüe) dantasm@wou.edu

Ministry of Public Education, Costa Rica February 14, 2017

Plans for Today

¨  Assessment basics ¤ Fundamental concepts ¤ Purposes ¤ Guiding principles

¨  Formative vs. Summative Assessments ¨  Performance-based Assessments

¤  rubrics ¤  observation checklists ¤  self- and peer- assessments ¤  exit tickets

A piece of the puzzle…

¨  Testing ¤  The administration of tests ¤  A test is a single instrument to measure a student’s ability at one

particular time n  Ex: A reading comprehension test of a book read in class

¨  Assessment ¤  The systematic process of planning, collecting, analyzing, reporting,

and using student data from a variety of sources over time (Gottlieb, 2016) n  Ex: Student’s reading ability is assessed through a variety of tests, and

formal and informal assessments throughout the school year (e.g., observations, projects, self-assessments)

¨  Evaluation ¤  Use of assessment data to make a judgment

n  Ex: Giving a grade for a course based on attendance, class participation, projects, papers, homework assignments, and tests

Fundamental Concepts

Evaluation

Assessment

Testing

Fundamental Concepts

Which one?

I always monitor my students’ participation in class, have them to complete projects in groups, and give them homework assignments to check their understanding. This information helps me decide if I need to re-teach certain topics, or if I can move on to the next unit.

I give a short quiz at the end of every unit to my students. As a class, we go over each test item and discuss the correct answers.

At the end of the year, I analyzed my students’ performance on all class tasks, projects, homework, and tests. Unfortunately, one student did so poorly that he could not pass to the next level.

Testing

Assessment

Evaluation

Purposes of Assessment ¨  Identify learning needs ¨  Evaluate teaching and learning ¨  Determine language learning targets ¨  Feedback for teachers

¤ Were my methods successful? What do I need to re-teach?

¨  Feedback for students ¤  Positive washback: useful feedback, student

learns from test ¤ Active role in own learning and increased

confidence (self-assessment)

Guiding Principles

Validity

Practicability

Authenticity

Washback

Reliability

¨  The consistency of test in measuring whatever it is that it is measuring

Reliability

Is this a reliable test?

¨  I created different forms of a test for my morning and afternoon classes with slightly different questions in a slightly different order. However, the content and difficulty level were the same and a student should perform comparably on both tests.

¨  The accuracy with which a test measures what it is intended to measure

¨  Validity refers to how test scores are interpreted and used

¨  Example ¤ Teacher wants to measure students’ writing

ability ¤ Teacher gives students a spelling test ¤ Can the results be used to make valid inferences

about the students’ writing ability?

Validity

Is this a valid test for listening skills and vocabulary (telling time)?

Practicality ¨  Easy to

administer ¨  Clear

directions ¨  All

resources are available

¨  Language assessed is appropriate and relevant

¨  Tasks resemble real-world uses of language

¨  Positive washback means that students learn something from the test. Good feedback is provided

Authenticity Washback

Is this a practical assessment?

¨  In a class with 40 students, in order to assess speaking skills, the teacher plans to conduct an individual interview with each student. Each interview will last 15 minutes.

Does this test have positive washback? ¨  A teacher returns a reading/grammar test

to the students with only check marks next to the wrong answers. There is no feedback or discussion.

Place the exercises along the authenticity continuum

Inauthentic Authentic

Exercises Work in pairs

Place the exercises along the authenticity continuum

Inauthentic Authentic

Circle the correct word Complete the chart Work in pairs Write the answers

Work in pairs Write the answers Circle the correct word Complete the chart

Inauthentic vs. Authentic

¨  Decontextualized exercises

¨  Test scores are the only feedback given

¨  Focus on the “right” answer

¨  Addresses knowledge about the language

¨  Contextualized tasks

¨  Interactive feedback (discussion)

¨  Open-ended, creative answers

¨  Addresses use of the language

Inauthentic Tests Authentic Assessments

Provides a summary of what a student knows and can do •  End-of-unit tests •  Final exams Provides information on how a student is doing and what modifications may be needed in instruction. Can also be diagnostic. On-going assessments which help inform what to do next with the students •  Observation forms •  Assessing writing samples with a

rubric •  Performance assessments

Summative vs. Formative

Summative

Formative (Formal and

Informal)

Formative vs. Summative

Formative ¨  Monitors student

progress ¨  Occurs internal to

instruction ¨  Provides ongoing

descriptive feedback ¨  Co-occurs with

learning ¨  Is process oriented ¨  Informs instruction

Summative ¨  Evaluates student

progress ¨  Occurs toward the end

of an instructional cycle ¨  Provides feedback that

may be in the form of grading

¨  Demonstrates learning ¨  Is product or outcome

oriented ¨  Gauges instructional

effectiveness

Assessment for learning

Assessment of learning

Formative or Summative?

Assessment that takes place during the process of learning. Purpose: to provide feedback to help the learning process.

Formal evaluation at the end of a learning period. Purpose: to measure what a student learned.

Performance (Alternative) Assessment ¨  Assessments that can be used within the

context of instruction and can be easily incorporated into the daily activities of the classroom

¨  Students are evaluated on how well they can

perform communicative tasks and on the language they produce, rather than on what they are able to recall and reproduce

(Bikowski, 2014)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qERwexKaC00

Communicative Assessment Tasks Oral Language •  role plays •  informal conferencing •  observation during

cooperative activities •  interview—Q & A •  picture-cued descriptions •  story-telling/relating events •  debates •  various oral presentations •  video production

Reading •  sequencing pictures, sentences, or paragraphs •  graphic organizers to classify words or phrases •  drawing based on written text • matching words with pictures, words, phrases,

sentences; matching sentences with paragraphs •  underlining or highlighting main ideas or

supporting details •  cloze exercise, comprehension questions •  discussion groups

Writing •  essays (expository, persuasive) •  narratives (real or fictional) •  summaries •  notes, journals, and logs •  portfolio of writing samples

Rating Performance (Alternative) Assessments

Rubrics Observation

Checklists

Self Assessments Peer

Assessments

Exit Tickets

Holistic vs. Analytic Rubrics

Advantages and disadvantages of each?

General vs. Task-Specific Rubrics

Using Rubrics

¨  Give the rubric to students before starting the task

¨  Have students grade their own work with the rubric before turning it in

¨  Give the graded rubric back to students with their scores and feedback comments

Ø  Focus on 5 aspects of students oral language proficiency o  Comprehension

•  How much does the students understand when he is spoken too? How well does she follow classroom discussions?

o  Fluency •  Does the student have a hard time speaking? Is it difficult to have a

conversation with him? Does the student’s speech flow well but occasionally gets stuck as he searches for the correct word

o  Vocabulary •  Is the student able to say everything he wants, or does he struggle because

he lacks the vocabulary to fully describe what he is thinking? Does he ever use the wrong words?

o  Pronunciation •  Do others have to struggle to understand what he is saying because he has

a strong foreign accent. o  Grammar

•  Are grammar errors so frequent it is hard to understand the student?

SOLOM Student Oral Language Observation Matrix

¨  Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej1wBXZJGQw

Assess the student’s English oral language proficiency using the SOLOM ¨  Discuss your scores and evaluation with

your classmates

Using Rubrics for Oral Tasks

Observation Checklists Student’s Name:

Observation Checklists

¨  A simple way of keeping a record of students’ performance in class

¨  Allows teachers to record information quickly about how students perform in relation to specific criteria

¨  Can be used for observations of an individual or group ¨  The forms can also include spaces for brief comments, which

provide additional information not captured in the checklist ¨  Before you use an observation checklist, ensure students

understand what information will be gathered and how it will be used (or involve them in creating the checklist)

¨  Share your scores and comments with students afterwards ¨  Ensure checklists are dated to provide a record of

observations over a period of time.

Encourage awareness of skills; promotes goal-setting, motivation, and autonomy

Self Assessments

Peer Assessments Encourage students to identify criteria for success in peers’ work, to collaborate, and to offer appropriate feedback

Self Assessments and Peer Assessments

Benefits •  Helps students understand the task they are asked to

perform •  Invites students to take responsibility for their own

learning •  Fosters the creation of shared expectations between

students and the teacher •  Helps students set goals for their learning •  Encourages them to do their best work •  Motivates students to analyze the quality of their work •  Offers important feedback to the teacher

Exit tickets

Encourage student reflection and analysis of learning; provides teacher with quick feedback related to lesson objectives

¨  Exit tickets can be an ideal way to end a class ¨  They can serve a number of purposes:

¤ provide feedback to the teacher about the class ¤  require the student to review the day’s content ¤  ask student to engage in problem-solving to

apply their learning ¨  Exit tickets allow the teacher to plan for the

next class…. ¤ Do I need to re-teach anything? ¤ Can I move on to the next topic? ¤ Are there some students who need additional

support?

Exit tickets

Performance Assessment: Principles and Practices ¨  Helps learners notice their linguistic

development ¨  Encourages retention of information

through meaningful feedback ¨  Increases self-direction and autonomy ¨  Promotes collaboration ¨  Fosters motivation and empowerment

Performance Assessment and Learner Training

¨  Most students are not used to performance assessments, so it is important to train them to be successful

¨  Make lesson objectives transparent ¨  Carefully explain the purpose and

of each assessment task ¨  Help students use the language

they need to complete the task ¨  Model feedback ¨  Show them how to help each other

Steps in Creating a Tool for Rating Performance Assessments

Step 1 •  Determine your objectives

•  What should students know and be able to do?

Step 2

•  Choose a task •  Which task could the students perform that would indicate that they have met

these objectives?

Step 3

•  Identify the criteria to use •  What are the characteristics of good performance that will indicate that

students have met the objectives?

Step 4

•  Identify levels of performance for each criterion •  The combination of the criteria and the levels of performance will be your

rubric

Adapted from Mueller, J. (2016) http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/howdoyoudoit.htm

Example: Creating a Rubric

Lesson Objectives: Students will be able to describe people and provide information about their name, age, nationality, and occupation. Students will be able to use descriptive adjectives and nouns.

Excellent Average Needs Improvement

Ideas and Content: Provides complete information about 3 friends (Name, Age, Nationality, Other)

Organization: Topics follow a logical sequence and details are provided in order

Vocabulary: Uses appropriate adjectives and nouns to describe each friend

Conventions: Uses appropriate grammar, punctuation, and spelling

Example: Creating a Rubric Rubric for Writing Sample:

Criteria

Levels of Performance

•  Examine the speaking task below •  Create a tool to evaluate your students’ performance on this task. Choose:

•  a rubric •  an observation checklist •  a self- or peer-assessment tool

Designing Assessments

Lesson Planning Grid

Preparing Learners

Ice breaker Build background knowledge Relate content to students’ lives Introduce vocabulary and concepts in context

Interacting

Teacher-Students: Teacher modeling Direct instruction if needed

Student-Student: Group practice (closely monitored by the teacher)

Extending Understanding

Apply newly gained knowledge to novel situations or use it to problem-solve Connect ideas learned to other ideas in previous lessons or in the real world Independent projects and tasks

Formative Assessment/Check for

Understanding

Formative Assessment/Check for

Understanding Summative Assessment

Objectives

Key Vocabulary Materials/Resources

Sharing and Discussion